Class-size effects not a given

Saturday

Jan 27, 2018 at 2:01 AM

Editor: For her 13 January 2018 story on the class-size mandate, your reporter interviewed a member of the county school board, a state representative, three apologists for “enhancement” activities, and a parent. All six accepted as a given the desirability of reducing class sizes. They differed only on how much, how soon, and how to make sure somebody else’s ox gets gored making it happen.

Too bad your reporter couldn’t have interviewed Malcolm Gladwell.

For a 2013 book, he surveyed all the hundreds of class-size studies one over the years. He explained: “Fifteen percent find statistically significant evidence that students do better in smaller classes. Roughly the same number find that students do worse in smaller classes. Twenty percent … find no effect at all – and the balance find a little bit of evidence in either direction that isn’t strong enough to draw any real conclusions. …”

Malcolm Gladwell accepts nothing as a given.

Barney W. Hill

Thomasville

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